I had asked to meet the students who did so well in the recent ‘Bebras Challenge’, which I knew was about testing students’ computational thinking.

Rather than a conversation about coding that I had anticipated, students explained how they had had to work through a range of problems. These include moving cars that had arrived at different times in a car park, and sequencing squirrels of different sizes. The students explained that they had learned how to use logic and think about sequencing, and this in turn would help their understanding of computational thinking. Quite a start to a Friday morning for me!

Parent and carer survey

Thank you to the families who took part in the survey that I shared last week. I have looked at the more quantitative responses, and am still reading responses to the open ended questions. I look forward to sharing the headlines with you later this half term and a big thank you to those who found the time to take part.

A message from the Greenshaw Learning Trust about safeguarding

As most of you will know, Greenshaw High School founded a multi-academy trust nearly eleven years ago that has grown to a group of 38 other schools. We work together in lots of ways, but sometimes the staff of the Greenshaw Learning Trust (GLT) will ask schools to share messages with their families. Please see an important message from GLT below.

GLT – keeping children safe online

Please find important information from Greenshaw Learning Trust attached below regarding keeping children safe online.

Ethics Cup competition at Caterham School

This week five of our Year 12 Philosophy students took part in an ethics and debating competition at Caterham School, called the Ethics Cup. These students had been practising and improving their skills through the autumn term in preparation for the competition which took place on Wednesday 14/01. Greenshaw High School's team faced off against last year's finalists amongst other seasoned schools and stood their own when facing down some of the favourites.

This is made even more impressive when noting that Greenshaw was the only state school, whilst all the others were fee-paying schools and regular attendants to the competition. Unfortunately, we did not make it through to the semi-finals, but the teamwork and in depth critical analysis presented by our school's team was something to be really proud of. A final shout out to Favour (Year 12) who was personally praised by the head of Philosophy at Caterham School for her clear and concise debating skills. All the students said they want to return and continue to debate next year, with plans on bringing an even bigger team in 2027!  

Thank you from the Royal Marsden

Before the Christmas break, each of our tutor groups kindly donated toys, sweets and gifts that were put in gift-wrapped shoe boxes. We delivered these to a range of different places and today received a letter from the Royal Marsden Hospital, one of the places we sent our shoe boxes to. They described how their wards were “filled with joy, surprise and the kind of festive magic that makes the festive season so special”. Thank you to all of you that were able to support this season of giving – it clearly made a difference to so many.

Students of the week

Last week’s winners included a national badminton champion, a student with a faultless school report, two A Level researchers and students with strong attendance, great attitudes and a very friendly nature. Congratulations goes to our latest stars of the week listed below. I look forward to hearing your stories of achievement next week.

Year 7	Year 8	Year 9	Year 10	Year 11	6th Form
Bruce	Aimee	Johnoya	Dylan	Shagana	Favour

In the meantime, I wish you all restful and relaxing weekends.

Mr N House, Headteacher